Iglesia de San Juan de Dios

Engaku-ji

El tren, que durante media hora se arrastraba chirriante por la herrumbrosa via, vomito en un segundo a sus difuminados pasajeros, y con ellos mis maltrechos huesos, que lejos parecia ya la ciudad del Oxido, mi querida y odiada Osaka, en aquel cartel se podia leer en Hiragana 'Kitakamakura' un santuario de gigantescas secuoyas se erguia orgulloso ante nosotros, tal era su verdor y frescura que me hacian preguntarme de que sustancia primigenia se nutrian, el asfalto, el tiempo, las maquinas?, todo aquello parecia un lejano suegno, era esto el nirvana?

Sin pensarlo, me adentre en el descomunal bosque para acceder al primer templo de Kita-kamakura, Engakuji, en ingles podia leerse que se construyo durante la guerra contra los mongoles en 1282, centro de meditacion, y del estudio del zen durante el period Koan.

Aqui deje de leer, mientras me dirijia hacia aquel desgastado mausoleo de madera milenaria, el tiempo y todo lo demas desaparcio, mire hacia dentro y ahi estaba, mirandome, aquella femenina representacion de buda, mecanicamente saque los lapices y empece a dibujar, a diluirme en las entranas de aquella colosal frondosidad, al cabo de un buen rato termine el dibujo empapado por la humedad, recogi los bartulos y me diriji a la entrada del recinto, donde compre una refrescante lata de cafe "Boss", mientras bebia el sabroso brebaje, recorde mi nignez, mis infantiles ensonaciones con aquel mitico extremo oriente, y sus lejanas criaturas, por un momento pense que tal vez en aquella epoca, en aquella lejana tierra que yo ahora pisaba, otro nigno imaginaba como seria la mitica Europa, quizas nuestros suegnos se entrecuzaron, aunque...un momento, yo no sognaba, yo estaba alli, en las entragnas de aquel milenario bosque, a las puertas del sagrado Engaku-ji, en la mil veces sognada tierra del sol naciente.

El Castillo de Salobreña

Yesterday instead of going to the beach, I went out for drawing, the day was clear here and the castle's view from my house was impresive, finally I got the inspiration, so I took my pencils and I went to a near hill to draw the castle of Salobreña, the main monument here.

From the X century, the arab sources give information about that castle, It seems clear that It was built for defensive reasons.

In the Nazari period, It was used a palace, and also as a royal castle to lock up defeated kings, and many muslim monarchs suffered prison inside its walls

In 1489 Salobreña surrended to the christian armies who took the control over the castle and the city, three years before The Conquest of Granada , Francisco Ramirez de Madrid was appointed as the castle's gobernor by the Catholic Kings. And the castle was an important defensive building for the spaniards until the XVIII century.

The castle belongs to the Nazari style,k a mixture of musulman and christian influence, the entire structure is nazari, but two of the towers were built by the christians in the XV century, and they have a typically castilian style.

After the XVIII century the castle became in ruins, and in 1849 is abandoned because it was militarly useless.

In the XIXS century is reformed again, and today is one of the most visited buildings in the south of Granada.

Tourists

This is my first sketch in this hot July in South Spain. Today, I went to Granada city to buy some books, and after that, I tried to sketch some buildings but I wasnt inspired at all, unlike Japan, where I think is easier to sketch, in Granada the feelings and sensations are all around, so its quite difficult to focus and start sketching, so I gave up that day, and I decided to just walk through the beautiful city, but when I arrived to the Cathedral's Square I saw tourists everywhere, they were from everywhere, north europeans, some of them looked from east Europe, japanese...etc I found quite interesting to observe the different characters and styles, some of them were sitting on the terraces of the rerstaurants, but some of them were just sitting on the thick stairs of the square, like myself, finally the inspiration came and I drew few characters.

I found the sketch unfinished, so i drew two more tourist when I was waiting inside the bus Station to go back to my parent's house in the coast of Granada, an old man, north european for his look, and a young asian girl, of course they came separatly, but they were the only people sitting right in front of me, very convenient to sketch.

Yucca aloifolia

I came back from Japan one month ago, to visit my parents here in Spain, they live in a very nice rural area in the South of Granada, in a very small town close to thr Mediterranean Sea, really beautiful, but no many neighbours around, even this paradise can be quite boring for an urban creature like me, used to live in mega-cities like Yokohama or Osaka, there is no urban places here to draw, just few cottages.

I find the garden of my mother the most beautiful thing here, she has plants from many parts of the world here, that grows quite well thanks to the blessed mediterranean weather, I feel like I can travel to many parts of the world when I am in the garden of my parent's house, forgetting for a while that I am in trapped residential area hundred kilometers away from the main city Granada.

I found this plant quite interesting, I asked my mother what was the name and where It came from, she told me that It is a palm tree originally from Canary Islands, but in the wikipedia I found that is a kind of Yucca, originally from the New Continent, America and the Caribbean sea.

Shirahata Shrine

I drew this sketch few days before the big quake, this is a small shrine very close to my house in Japan. After my first visit I knew that I wanted to draw it. It's not a very old building, I think it was built in the 70's, the reason I wanted to draw it was because the beauty of its location.


After I finished the sketch I did some research about "Shirahata Shrine", and amazingly I found out that Minamoto no Yorimoto's grave is there, Yorimoto became the first Japan's shogun during the Kamakura period, after the Heian period, and behind his name exists one of the most amazing parts of the History of the feudal Japan, full of heros, traitors and leyends mixed with the real facts.

But the true hero of this story was his brother, the young Minamoto no Yoshitsune, who's life was a continuous battle against his enemies to get the control over Japan, and after he defeated all of them he was betrayed and force to commit seppuku by Yorimoto, his older brother, finally Yorimoto got the power and Yoshitsune the glory.

Injerto de memoria a traves del moleskine

video


Bocetos de personas, en su mayoria hechos dentro de los trenes locales del trayecto que va desde Tokio a Yokohama, en la compañia JR, nada romantico como puede verse.

Y es que el que realmente ha vivido en Japon sabe de lo que hablo, romanticismos de turistas y otakus aparte, la dureza y soledad de los trenes locales de Japon es algo de lo que nadie que viva alli puede escapar, y si alguien no la ha sentido, es que una de dos, o no ha vivido el tiempo suficiente para darse cuenta, o ha estado de vacaciones, no se puede hablar alto, no se come, no se puede hablar por el celular, los japoneses que saben de que va la cosa, se evaden a las prohibiciones, leyendo, mirando el mobil, jugando a la play, o haciendo lo que mejor se puede hacer en un tren japones, dormir,en mi caso era dibujando, que no estaba prohibido. aunque uno siempre encontraba turistas que NO sabian de que iba el asuntO, y rompian agradablemente la monotonia del vagon, con sus gritos y desinhibicion, de Japon echo de menos muchas cosas, pero no los trenes de cercanias, creanme.

Recuerdo una vez, que un joven koreano se me acerco dentro del tren y me pregunto con desesperacion "do you speak English?, Yes I do, le dije, "que pasa aqui dentroªª me dijo, nadie habla, estaba silvando bajito y la gente me miraba extraño, pregunte en ingles por el nombre de la proxima estacion, pero no me entendian", me dijo que llevaba una semana en Japon, estaba de vacaciones, a sus desosegadas preguntas yo le respondi con una sarcastica sonrisa "bienvenido a los trenes de cercanias japoneses".

Ahora eso si, comodos efectivos y puntuales no los he visto mejores en la madre tierra, simetricamente perfectos se miren por donde se miren, dignos de admirar, los billetes bastante mas baratos que los de España por cierto, extraordinariamente organizados,bellos, adjetivos positivos todos los que queramos, me reitero,romanticismos aparte, estos trenes por muy comodos que sean, se usan fundamentalmente para llevar a la gente a trabajar desde la provincia a Tokio o viceversa, yo soy el primer otaku que los admira, pero me reitero, quien no ha sentido la soledad de los trenes de cercanias japoneses es que no ha vivido lo suficiente en Japon.

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